NAZANIN Zaghari-Ratcliffe today opened up about her “haunting” six-year nightmare in Iran today after finally coming back to Britain.
Speaking at her first press conference since her release, the mum said she had a lot of catching up to do with her family.
While ecstatic to be back, she said easing back into family life “was very tough”.
The mum said: “Coming back to a daughter who is nearly eight – I left her when she was not even two.
“There was a whole lot of catching up to do with Richard and Gabriella and getting to know them better.”
She came to Parliament this afternoon with husband Richard and daughter Gabriella to open up about her hellish time in prison.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe landed back in Britain last Thursday after six painful years as Iran’s prisoner on ridiculous spying charges.
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While “grateful” to her “amazing husband” and everyone who helped get her free, she vented frustration at not being released earlier and refused to thank Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
Nazanin said: “I have seen five foreign secretaries change over the course of six years. I was told many, many times that ‘oh, we’re gonna get you home’. That never happened.
“So there was a time that I felt like ‘do you know what I might not I’m not able to trust you’ – because I’ve been told many many times that I’m gonna be taken home but that never happened.
“How many foreign secretaries does it take… What’s happened now should have happened six years ago?”
Aid worker Nazanin, 44, was arrested in 2016 after a holiday visit with Gabriella and convicted of plotting to overthrow the government.
She was thrown in jail for five years and served another year under house arrest.
Since returning the Hampstead mum-of-one has eased back into family life by making pizzas with Gabriella.
Richard joked at the press conference: “We’re still negotiating whether daddy’s allowed in the same bed as Gabriella and Nazanin.”
The family has been staying at Dorneywood, Rishi Sunak’s Buckinghamshire sprawling grace-and-favour mansion.
She was free after Britain settled a £400million debt owed to Iran after cancelling an order of tanks in the 1970s.
Iran, which is heavily sanctioned for human rights violations, must spend the money on humanitarian purposes as part of the deal.
Another British-Iranian national Anoosheh Ashoori, a retired civil engineer, was also freed as part of the deal.
But a third, 66-year-old Morad Tahbaz from Hammersmith, has been put back under house arrest after being temporarily let out.
His sister, Tahrane Tahbaz, this morning told BBC Radio 4 that he was taken back into prison after just 48 hours.
She said: “We haven’t heard from him since and we have heard through a relative just a few hours ago that he’s been taken from the prison and he’s been taken to an undisclosed location and that he’s gone on hunger strike.”
A FCDO spokesperson said they are working to get Mr Tahbaz, who has cancer, to return home to the UK.
